Stress, Health, and “Transcendence”-Dr. Norman Rosenthal

“It is not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it” – Hans Selye

Stress isn’t just a part of life, it is in some ways, essential to life. Without any stress our bones would fall apart, we wouldn’t learn new ways of coping, and life would certainly be quite uninteresting. Bt there’s another kind of stress – the unrelenting, toxic kind – that robs us of sleep, drains our joy, damages relationships, and makes us ill.

The bad news is that chronic stress actually changes our brains to make flight-fight-freeze our default setting, regardless of the triggering event. Something as major as being in combat, or as trivial as being cut off in traffic can produce the same “0-60” reaction.

The good news is that certain practices undo the damage, and rewire the brain to be the calm, reasonable manager we’d like it to be.

A scholarly text? Absolutely! It would convince me, if I wasn’t already.

Dry reading? Not at all.

In telling his story Dr. Rosenthal presents a series of personal vignettes, as well as stories of friends, colleagues, patients affected by stress in it’s most extreme forms. We read about depression, ADD/ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, addictions and the cost these extract in human suffering. We also learn how a simple to learn, readily accessible technique – TM – can help turn things around.

JE) You’re experience seems to indicate that Transcendental Meditation (TM), or self-transcending, is the most helpful type of meditation for people impacted by severe stress such as military veterans dealing with PTSD. Could you elaborate a bit on why that’s so?

NR) We don’t have a lot of data on the value of different types of meditation for veterans with PTSD. We do, however, have a fair amount of data on TM for these people – and the results thus far look very promising. At the Urban Zen Event we heard from veterans of three separate wars: WW II, Vietnam and Iraq. Despite the differences in age and specific war conditions, all these people had been disabled by the symptoms of PTSD, and all found healing and recovery through TM. But the data goes well beyond individual anecdotes. In one controlled study done in the 80’s on Vietnam vets, TM outperformed the conventional psychotherapy of the day. More recently, my group and I published a pilot study of 5 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afganistan in the Journal of Military Medicine. We taught these 5 people TM and after 2 months saw a 50% decrease in their PTSD symptons. I reached three of them by phone recently over a year after the end of the study. All continued to meditate and benefit from it; all said that the effects of TM on their lives had been transformational.

JE) People are sometimes reluctant, or skeptical that medication can help them. One of the beliefs I hear a lot is that only those who have been meditating for a long time reap the benefits. Have you found this to be true?

NR) Not at all. Many people report benefits from TM after even one session. Even those for whom benefits come more slowly (like myself), they are apparent within the first few months – and generally get better from there.

JE) You’ve been involved with introducing meditation in many places where you’d least expect meditation – inner city schools, prisons, corporate board rooms. Is there one setting in particular that you find especially personally rewarding?

NR)First of all, I don’t want to take credit for introducing TM in these settings. Many organizations, such as the David Lynch Foundation, have been responsible. That said, I have been tremendously impressed with its ability to help people in difficult situations – such as inner city schools or prisons – settle down and focus on the task at hand, whether that is learning or getting out of prison! Of course, TM can help people under stress for any reason – and the corporate boardroom is certainly one such place. In my book “Transcendence” I describe and discuss the benefits of TM in all of these settings.

JE) People are curious, and have asked me how my personal practice has changed me. On reflection it seems that the single most important thing is that there’s now a space, however brief, between the stimulus and my response. And that space allows for a wider, more creative range of possible courses of action. It’s as if my brain is processing life differently in some very basic, fundamental ways. Is this a common experience?

NR) Absolutely. It is one of the most important benefits of TM – to help us respond more thoughtfully instead of reacting reflexively. Those extra few seconds can make all the difference to the outcome.

JE) Toward the end of “Transcendence” you talk about how meditation benefits those already well on their way to self-actualization. How does the practice help to free up those “creative juices”?

NR) Sometimes creativity comes during meditation – either in small increments or huge epiphanies. I describe these different types of experiences in my book. But even when creative ideas don’t actually come during the sessions themselves, clearing out the cobwebs from the mind can free people up to access the shafts of light on which creative ideas depend.

JE) Dr. Rosenthal, thanks so very much for sharing your thoughts with us. Any final comments?

NR) Yes – I want to express gratitude – to all those for whom my book has been an enjoyable and meaningful experience and especially those who have been kind enough to communicate that to me. My primary motivation for writing the book was to share the passion I feel for what TM can give to so many people – the gift has been returned to me many times over by their warm responses.

At Urban Zen New York City for Operation Warrior Wellness

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One thing I’d like to add here. Even though there’s usually a sizable fee involved in receiving TM instruction, Operation Warrior Wellness, through the David Lynch Foundation, has scholarships available so that no one need who wants training will be refused. That’s what I call putting your money where your mouth is!

4 Responses

Tm utilizes a manta, given to you by a teacher. If you know a little sanskrit, you know that mantra means “mind tool”. Giving that monkey mind something to focus on helps to remove the distraction. I’ve done some mantra myself, and find it very soothing. Interestingly, mantra is something I can do even when I’m driving my car without causing problems. Thanks Ryal.